Planning & Development - Miscellaneous

London Mayor and Enfield Council set out strategies to tackle housing problems

In the last few days both the Mayor of London and Enfield Council have published new strategy documents relating to tackling problems with the availability and affordability of housing within their respective geographical areas of responsibility.

Reforming the private rented sector in London

The main points of the Mayor of London's blueprint for the private rented sector are proposals to reform tenancy laws to make it harder for landlords to evict tenants without good reason, and to develop and implement a system to reduce private rents in London gradually over time. However, the Mayor does not have the power to implement either, so his blueprint instead sets out the case for the necessary changes to be made by central government.

Building more homes and better homes in Enfield

The proposed strategy for housing and growth is summarised in this infographic.

Five guiding principles are listed:

Affordable to Enfield residentsThis means creating developments where different people on different incomes can live

Health promotingThis means helping people to eat well, be smoke free, physically active, emotionally well and live in thermal comfort

Digitally connectedThis means creating homes that will be fit for future technology, like providing Fibre-to-the-premises and smart homes/meters that help people with disabilities or health conditions

Child, age and disability friendlyThis means providing safe outside play provision, helping all residents to stay safe in their communities and when out and about and providing places where people can meet socially

Tackling homelessness in Enfield

The background to the draft strategy to decrease homelessness and rough sleeping in Enfield includes the following:

Homelessness has increased in Enfield by 250% since 2011/12 – Homelessness levels in Enfield are higher than London and national averages

In Enfield, there are almost 3,500 households in Temporary Accommodation

Private Rented Sector rents have increased by 37% since 2011

Eviction from the Private Rented Sector is the biggest cause ofhomelessness in Enfield

Rough sleeping in Enfield has increased significantly in recent years

In 2018/19, Enfield spent over £66m on the Temporary Accommodation service, with a net cost to the local authority of £7m.

The main points of the draft strategy are shown in the figure below:

Details of the consultation

Enfield Council is developing two new strategies which will have a huge impact on how we will achieve our ambition to create a lifetime of opportunities in Enfield. The Housing and Growth Strategy shows our approach to building more homes and better homes that will benefit everyone in Enfield. The Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategy details how we will work across the Council, with our partners and with the community to prevent and end homelessness in Enfield.

Some funny ironies and dichotomies in there. Mayor's proposals are ridiculous and not just because he cannot actually effect them!! Rent controls always fail. They reduce supply of rental stock to the market and reduce the quality and level of what is provided as private landlords (the majority of which in this country remain "mom & pop" investors with 3 or less) are not incentivised or have sufficient liquidity to invest in their properties.

And evictions are already being made harder by the Government at a national level with the scrapping of S.21. It currently takes 3-6 months to evict someone in London - not sure how or why anyone has come to the conclusion that that's easy therefore or that LL's just do it for sh*ts & giggles. Meanwhile the tenant is free to trash the place and live rent free.

Nice to see some emphasis in the housing & growth strategy of actually BUILDING, especially in well connected locations. Though the usual get out of jail free caveat card has been left in there so councils can bow to anti-development campaigners - please build but just not exactly here, to exactly this design, to exactly this tenure mix and pricing point.

Given build costs are relatively fixed and outside local authority control, I wonder if Enfield will show commitment to the above tenure and pricing aspirations by allowing reduced social (free council) housing in new developments?

In simple terms, a developer for 50 flats in Enfield might be looking at a £17m GDV. If forced to give away 20 to social then it'd need to sell the 30 privates at £500k. If Enfield allowed it to have 45 private and 5 shared ownership then the privates could be sold for £350k. You would then have a supply of 45 new housing units at affordable pricing levels.

See also...

Enfield Council has launched a consultation on its proposals for two Private Rented Property Licensing Schemes. The consultation, which runs until 29th November, is open to all residents, tenants, landlords, agents, businesses and any interested parties in Enfield and outside of the borough. Read more

Tuesday's meeting of Enfield's Planning Committee refused to give the go-ahead for a scheme to build 15 housing units at 465-469 Green Lanes. The former snooker club behind these buildings would have been replaced by two blocks of flats up to 4-storeys high Read more

A campaign group called BetterHomes Enfield has launched an online petition calling on Enfield Council to follow the example of many other London boroughs and take steps to prevent developers using a planning loophole called 'permitted rights' to convert office blocks into 'human warehouses' - turning former offices into flats which are not fit for purpose. Read more

In response to the results of a 'Community View' process held last week, in which the majority of participants expressed opposition to the proposal to construct several tall buildings near Southgate Circus - one of them 17 storeys high - Enfield Council has indicated that it will be taking steps to widen engagement in the process for dealing with the planning application, including convening a special Planning Panel meeting. Read more

Enfield RoadWatch, a group which campaigns against housebuilding on Green Belt land, has issued a reminder that the deadline for responding to the draft Enfield Local Plan is approaching - responses must be received by 5pm on Thursday 28th February. Read more